WASHINGTON (voa) – President Bush has expressed satisfaction with the pace of the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and said he is holding Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to account on his pledge to fight terrorism.
In comments before meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell at the White House Thursday, Mr. Bush said Israel responded quickly after he issued a tough call for it to withdraw from Palestinian territories. The President added that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been meeting the timetable he gave Mr. Bush for pulling out of the West Bank and must continue to draw back Israel troops.
Noting that Palestinian leader Arafat has condemned terror, Mr. Bush called on him to back up the words with concrete anti-terrorist action. Secretary of State Powell was at the White House to brief President Bush on his 10-day mission to the Middle East, which failed to achieve the hoped-for Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire.
President Bush acknowledged that one trip by Mr. Powell will not resolve all the long-standing problems in the Middle East. But he praised the Secretary of State for laying out the U.S. vision of peace in the region.
